Beginner's Help for RoboHelp Required

[Guest]

Hello.

I am a non-tech writer who has been put in charge of writing/updating existing help files for a project. I am using RoboHelp 7 for the first time, and have never worked on any other Help file or with another Help file system in my life.

To that end, I am confused at even the most basic level.

The previous writer has not handed off to me the source files for this project. I assume that if she had, I could just click on a project file with an extension that ends in .xpj, .mpj, .hhp, .hlp, and/or .hpj.

I have, however, received a .chm file based on her work (she's using an earlier version of RoboHelp if that's relevant). Following some of the advice here and elsewhere, I used the Microsoft HTML Help Workshop to decompile the .chm and get a bunch of source files. Was that the right thing to do? It seems weird that I cannot do that in RoboHelp itself.

Anyway, I now have a bunch of files. What I do not have, and what I expected to have, is a file with a RoboHelp icon, or a file with one of the various extensions I listed above.

That means I do not know how to open the project and begin editing/updating it in RoboHelp.

Any ideas for me? I will thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

[Linux Rules]

Welcome -

Sorry your situation is what brought you here...

Best solution: GET THE SOURCE FILES. That employee (be she former W2 or 1099 contractor) OWES the company those files. Have your legal department begin proceeding right away - no, I'm not kidding.

Short of that, you have some serious work ahead of you. This forum is probably not the place to begin your training on RoboHelp. I recommend hiring a day of training from an experienced RH user in your area. Short of that, try Rick's and/or Peter's sites (a quick look/search on this forum will be most helpfull).

Good luck - let the forum know how it goes.

Regards,
GEWB

[MergeThis]

Have you looked at Peter Grainge's article on Reverse Engineering? You should find everything you need to get started.


Good luck,
Leon

[Guest]

Thanks for the feedback.

I have read Peter Granger's article on reverse engineering. A lot of it's over my head, but I still think I get some of the basics.

I believe I have correctly got the source files by decompiling the .chm. The next step in Mr. Granger's article says to "get the HHP Builder," which I have done. I am stymied at that point, though. What am I supposed to do with that? I am guessing that is going to build a project file somehow.

I also see that even if this works, I'll probably lose a bunch of stuff I'll have to rebuild. That right?

[Pete_Lees]

Hi,

I'd suggest that you decompile the .chm file with KeyTools, as that will generate a project (.hhp) file for you as a matter of course. Then you can use the .hhp file to load the project back in to RoboHelp.

http://www.keyworks.net/keytools.htm

You may still need to do some cleaning up afterwards, as explained in the "What will be lost?" section of Peter's article. For this reason, GEWB's advice to track down the previous author's source files if at all possible is right on the money.

Pete

[Guest]

Thanks.